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This new international K-12 project, showcases the Verizon/ANJ Newark Portal and
the growing partnerships between higher education and K-12 schools.
MONTCLAIR, NJ-Panama's rainforest will come into United States
classrooms next week, with live videoconferencing from a tropical forest
research facility. The broadcasts will be converted to streaming video
for website viewing and archiving.
Dr. Jacalyn Willis, director of PRISM (Professional Resources in Science
and Mathematics) at Montclair State University, and Gregory Willis will
present five sessions in both English and Spanish to classes in New
Jersey and Texas during the week of Feb. 10. The researchers have
studied wildlife on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) in Panama for a month
each year for the past 20 years, carrying out a long-term census of
mammals to study how populations of different species on the island
change from year to year.
Located in Gatun Lake, part of the Panama Canal waterway, BCI is a field
station operated by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Students will be able to talk with the Willises and their associates
directly from this forest location through live videoconferences.
Researchers will talk about their experiences, their research projects,
and ecological principles, and will answer students' questions.
The Willises created the Rainforest Connection, an interactive email
project, seven years ago. The husband and wife team write regular
journal entries for students back in New Jersey, where they live most of
the year, and students may correspond with the team in Panama. The
Rainforest Connection is coordinated by PRISM, which provides services
to school districts in the teaching of science and mathematics. The
research team in Panama has posted regular journal entries on the
Rainforest Connection website (http://rainforest.montclair.edu),
describing what they see and experience as they carry out their projects
in the forest.
The Rainforest Connection is a useful source for background information
on forests, how researchers study animals, basic ecological principles,
animal ecology, photos, video clips, interviews with scientists, and
lesson plans. The website has a Spanish language version as well, to
include bilingual students in the USA and students in Latin American
countries. Teachers are using the Rainforest Connection materials to
prepare their students for the conference discussions by video.
This new international K-12 project, showcases the Verizon/ANJ Newark
Portal and the growing partnerships between higher education and K-12
schools. Verizon has taken a leadership position in this project and
NJEDge.net provided technical expertise. Project Director Jacalyn Willis
commented, "This is very exciting, and a first for New Jersey
educational institutions: to actually develop our own video conference
with classes from home, and live from a research site in an exotic
location. It gives totally new meaning to the Rainforest Connection as
an interactive teaching venue." If this pilot project succeeds, then
similar programming from Montclair State University and from field sites
will be made available to more schools partnered with PRISM, she said.
In New Jersey, schools participating in the project include schools from
the districts of East Orange, Paterson, Park Ridge, Passaic, Passaic
Valley Regional High School, Bayonne, Kearny and Cape May. Several
schools from the Temple Texas Independent School District will also
participate.
Details of the session schedule, with topics and a list of participating
schools in New Jersey and Texas, are on the web-site.
Project Leaders
Project Director, Jacalyn Willis, holds a doctoral degree in biology
from the City University of New York. She and her husband Gregory Willis
created the Rainforest Connection internet project seven years ago.
Jackie is the Director of the Center for Professional Resources In
Science & Mathematics (PRISM), in the College of Science & Mathematics
at Montclair State University. PRISM provides services to school
districts in the teaching of science and mathematics through a variety
of projects, including the Visiting Professors Program, and Summer
Science Institutes for teachers.
Gregory Willis is a contractor in New Jersey, who also hunts and is a
naturalist. He has done field census work on mammals in tropical forests
in several countries in Latin America.
Project Facilitators
Anna Mazzaro, a PRISM staff member and elementary classroom teacher with
field experience in tropical forests will appear in and assist in
directing the broadcasts.
Katrina Macht, a 5th-grade teacher and award-winning environmental
educator from Hillside Intermediate School in Bridgewater-Raritan, will
join the project in Panama to provide an educator's commentary.
Robert V. Horan, a field assistant and student at the University of
Georgia with expertise in herpetology, will appear in the broadcasts.
Ricardo Moreno, a Panamanian researcher who collaborates with Jackie and
Greg in the ocelot study on BCI, will be interviewed.
Enzo Aliaga-Rossel, a Bolivian biologist who studies the ecology of
agoutis on BCI, will appear in a Spanish language session.
Supporters
Funding from the Verizon NJ Corporation made this live video connection
possible. The coordination of the video connection through the
technology of satellite TV and web video- streaming will involve staff
at Montclair State University, NJ EDge.net, the Tandberg Corporation,
Tele-measurements, Princeton University, New Jersey Institute of
Technology, and the Verizon NJ Corporation.
Technical expertise has been provided by Verizon through Eric Kulmala,
Video Portal and Satellite Engineer from Verizon, Inc. He operates the
satellite dish and video conferencing equipment transported to Panama
for this project.
The logistics associated with broadcast from a rainforest are many, and
the team has had to be inventive. In New Jersey, a large team from
different institutions will coordinate to make this happen: Charlie
McMickle, Assistant Director of Technical Services of NJEdge.Net, Bill
Duelly, of NJIT, Lorene Lavora, Web Manager of Princeton University,
John O'Brien, Assistant Director of Instructional Sevices at Montclair
State University, Dan Cleary, a VerizonVideo Portal Engineer, Jinan
Jaber, Assistant Dean of the College of Science & Mathematics at
Montclair State University,Cathy Timpone, Director of Curriculum and
Technology at the Park Ridge Public School District, and Matthew
Conforth, Director of Technology at Passaic Valley High School.
Imagine students from Paterson, Trenton and Cherry Hill working together on the
same project, in the same classroom, at the same time.
It's a virtual classroom, and it's possible
through interactive videoconferencing provided by Verizon's Video
Portal network.
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